You are here

The 800-km NEPTUNE observatory and the nearly 50-km VENUS coastal observatory—which together make up the Ocean Networks Canada Observatory—stream live data from instruments at key sites off coastal BC via the Internet to scientists, policy-makers, educators and the public around the world.

Long-term observations by the Ocean Networks Canada will have wide-ranging policy applications in the areas of ocean and climate change, earthquakes and tsunamis, pollution, port security and shipping, resource development, sovereignty and security, and ocean management.

The VENUS coastal observatory is giving us a better understanding of vital water ways such as the Strait of Georgia and Fraser River delta. VENUS is currently expanding its seafloor network, coastal radar and surface systems, including instrumentation on BC Ferries vessels. The new data will provide information for marine safety, search and rescue, and oil spill response.

Seismographs on the NEPTUNE observatory are monitoring earthquake activity and stresses in the Earth’s crust—crucial information for emergency organizations and coastal residents.

Super-sensitive bottom pressure recorders on the NEPTUNE observatory are part of one of the most precise real-time tsunami monitoring systems in the world.

Specialized underwater microphones, or hydrophones, on VENUS and NEPTUNE are tracking the movements of marine mammals, giving us a better understanding of how human activity in busy inland waters is affecting marine wildlife—such as endangered resident orcas.

Specialized sensors, cameras and remotely controlled sampling devices at NEPTUNE’s Endeavour site are learning more about life forms unlike anything else found on Earth, such as organisms that thrive in the dark using energy from chemical reactions.

In fall 2012, Ocean Networks Canada installed a new observatory at Cambridge Bay, Nunavut, which will help the local community, as well as researchers, better understand the rapidly changing sea ice and ocean conditions in the Arctic.

Ocean Networks Canada is building partnerships with academia, governments and industry across Canada and around the world. It supports marine sector companies in gaining entry points to new markets worldwide. And it leverages the technology and expertise of VENUS and NEPTUNE in the development of new products and services for the global ocean observing industry.

About Ocean Networks Canada

Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) is a not-for-profit society created in 2007 by the University of Victoria to develop and manage the NEPTUNE and VENUS Observatories, to position Canada as an international leader in the science and technology of ocean observing systems, and to maximize associated economic and societal benefits through commercialization and outreach.

The Ocean Networks Canada Innovation Centre (formerly "Centre for Enterprise and Engagement, ONCCEE)" supports the Ocean Networks Canada by providingocean-observing expertise to industry, academia and governments across Canada and around the world. The Innovation Centre also offers Canadian marine technology companies commercialization expertise and the opportunity to demonstrate their sensors and instruments on a world-class ocean observatory.